No matter what
by Saphere Aude
Summary: Soulmates AU. Madge and Gale argue over soulmates.
1. No matter what

Madge knocked the door softly and opened it, she peered inside and founded Mrs. Smith.

"Come in"

She came into the detention room and took a sit in the first chair she saw, throwing her books on the table.

"Well" Mrs. Smith looked over her glasses "I think both of you are mature enough to be here alone without any supervision. You can leave at eight" after that she left the room quickly.

"Undersee? How did you get here?" she turned and found Gale Hawthorne. It was really unusual to see him there. Everyone knew he had a great gpa and never in his entire life had get caught red handed. Not that she has ever been there.

"I had a fight over soulmates, and you?"

"I missed the first period" he sifted in his chair "How a fight over soulmates got you into detention?"

She blushed "I think I shouted a little"

He quirked an eyebrow "None has never been told of for shouting"

"Try saying that to the new teacher" She sighted "He didn't take it very well"

"Why were yo fighting over soulmates? I thought you were over that things" he said nodding towards her wrist.

She blushed and touched lightly the piece of fabric she had over her wrist to cover her soulmate sentence. She knew Gale wasn't making fun of her, he was very respectful. They knew each other because Katniss was friends with both of them, but they were simply acquittances.

"It's not like that" she sighted "The thing is that I don't like people seeing the sentences" she shrugged her shoulders "I don't think a sentence is why you fall in love with anybody"

"So you don't believe in soulmates" Gale had turned, he was facing her. She blushed a little, she wasn't used to discuss about soulmates. He left out a little laugh "It's weird"

She opened her mouth, but she closed it. It was weird. Someone who didn't believe in soumates was indeed weird. Especially since almost everyone founded their soulmates.

Gale smiled, waiting for her comeback. Everybody knew Madge Undersee hated not having the last word. She was the captain of the debate team and she made the best conclusions for a reason.

"I believe in soulmates" she started "It's just... I don't know how to say it. I mean I think you can be perfect for another person. What I don't believe in is that everyone can have they perfect partner. It's impossible. There aren't the same amount of men a women in the world. Therefore it's impossible that everyone have a soulmate. But everyone has this sentence written in some part of their bodies. So if you ask me, I believe in soulmates. But I don't believe everybody has a soulmate"

"Wow!" Gale shaked his head and looked at her with disbelief "You could have just said that you didn't believe in soulmates"

"I don't believe in them. Happy?" Madge replied. She opened her books and started with her math homework.

"Don't get angry Undersee" Gale said "I don't care if you don't believe in them. I was just asking"

"And why do you care? Because everybody say that my parents aren't soulmates? Because they said that in consequence I don't have a sentence? That I cover my arm to pretend I have one" she was breathing hard, but she continued her rant "Well let me tell you something. Yes my parents aren't soulmates and they love each other more than a lot of soulmates. And I do have a soulmate sentence, but I cover it because I don't think a sentence will make you fall in love or continue loving that person your whole marriage. I think that loving someone is not determined by fate. That's why I don't believe in something as stupid as a sentence and when my time comes I will erase this mark out of my body. Because I will be the one deciding my future. I could fall in love with someone that comes and tells me a line, and that line could or couldn't be written in my skin, but I will be the one who choses to stay with him. No some birthmark" she stopped to catch air, she found Gale looking at her with confusion.

"I didn't want to ask that. What I don't get is how you can not believe in soulmates. And you know? The thing about the sentence is that you don't notice it right away. I know, I know" he said holding his hands up "The sentence is the words that make you fall in love with your soulmate. But most of people realize their soulmates had told that sentence to them a long time after that happens. So I don't see how that can be seen as a weakness.

You say you don't believe in soulmates because you have seen relationships break and because your parents have been able to love each other despite not being soulmates. But let me tell you something, we are humans. So is not weird that someone gives up in a relationship if it's toxic and also is possible that two persons who weren't supposed to be perfect together are able to make things work and to be perfect for them in their own way. Of course.

But I also believe in soulmates. In people that are made to be together in a way you couldn't imagine. It means that by having your true love by your side you will be happier. I don't know how to explain it. It's like there is a person that has been make to be with you, and you belong together, and the universe, and God and everything you believe in want you to be together. So they have write something in your body, it might be a short sentence, or a long one, or even just a word. Because the meaning is not important. What matters is the person who said it to you, the circumstances and the meaning they got in the moment you heard them, the context.

I have thought all my live that the fact that you have a few words over your body is not going to make a relationship work. You are the one responsible of that. The only thing the mark can do is remind you why you fell in love the first time, why you decided to be with that person, why I would have been with this person all this time. This mark will remind me this, so when things go wrong, when we have bad moments, when it looks like there is not possible to make it work. In those moments I know I would look at this sentence and I would remember why I fell in love, why I chose this person to share my life. And I will chose her again and again, no matter what. I won't care if the path we are walking is dark, if we had fight or if we had make mistakes. Because she will be the love of my life, the only one I want to be the rest of my life.

That it's a soulmate, and the fack that everybody has given the mark a different meaning doesn't make it less valid. And that's why I belive in soulmates."

When Gale finished Madge was astonished. Who would have thought of soulmates in that way? Not her. What Gale had described was what she had saw in the marriage of her parents, every single part of it. If he believed in soulmates in that way there was nothing she could say.

"It's eight o'clock. Good bye Hawthorne" she took her books and left the class in a rush. For the first time in her life Madge Undersee was unable to give an answer.


	2. Love is everything

Madge was reading in the grass, under the shadow of a big oak, when someone took a seat next to her.

"So you're still reading that book Katniss said?"

She peered over the book and found Hawthorne looking at her with a mischievous smile.

"Yes" she continued reading, she didn't want to talk.

"It's true that there aren't soulmates or anything similar there?"

"Indeed"

He scoffed. "You are the only one who would read a book like that"

"Any problem with that?"

"No" he shrugged "It's not something people usually read about, anyway I was wondering if you wanted to come to the party Thom is throwing tonight?"

Madge looked at him startled, this was strange. Usually he would invite Katniss and tell her to bring someone. Katniss always told her to came along because she didn't want to go alone to that kind of things.

"I guess so, if Katniss goes I'll go"

"Ok, I'll see you there" and with that he went away.

Madge didn't know what to think, the entire conversation had been awkward. But she was really invested in the book, so she didn't give it a second thought and continued reading.

Madge and Katniss arrived together at Thom's house. It was calm, just some guys and a couple of girls. But Madge knew this calm wouldn't last to long, half an hour later the house would be packed with people trying to get drunk as fast as possible and dancing all over the house. At that point Katniss and her usually went to the garden to talk and drink, sometimes Peeta would came with a couple of friends or Delly who always told them the latest gossip while she cooled down a bit before heading back to continue dancing. However today was different, when Peeta came out he didn't stayed talking with them, instead he convinced Katniss to go inside and dance. Madge was still wondering how he had been able to do that when Gale sat next to her.

"Hey! What are you doing here on your own?" he asked her.

"Peeta convinced Katniss to dance with him" she frowned "although I'm not sure how he did that"

Gale laughed "I think that the fact that Katniss likes him has something to do with that miracle"

"She likes him?" she asked with disbelief "she hasn't said anything about that"

"Maybe it's because you don't look like someone who likes to talk about crushes, relationships and so" he offered

"Why? I mean, I don't hate love or anything like that" she couldn't believe that, Katniss had a crush on Peeta Mellark and she hasn't been able to say anything to her. She wasn't the grinch for crying out loud!

"Says the girl who read books about a world without love" Hawthorne knew how to be the most annoying person in the world.

"For your information the book is not about a world without love, it's about a world without soulmates. There's a huge difference" she was getting angry, why people would always assume that not soulmates was equal to no love?

"Well I don't see the difference, if you don't have a soulmate you don't have anyone to love, do you?" Hawthorne was smirking, but she didn't know if he was making fun of her, or of he really believed what he had said.

"After your speech I didn't expected this from you" he had de decency to look a little ashamed "not having a soulmate doesn't mean you are not able to love, because you're able to love more people than your soulmate, aren't you? You love your family and friends, like everybody does. But you are stupid enough to tell me that a world without soulmates means a world without love. Well that's not true.

The fact that you don't have a soulmate makes you able to love without any second thoughts about if she would be the chosen one, the one that would say your sentence. In a world like that love is somehow free, you don't feel that need to keep your love caged until you found the one. People go around with they heart on their hands, they give love like it's free, like it won't waste, as if they would be able to produce more love, and you know what? That's exactly what happens"

"So, you think that without soulmates people would be free? But we are already free. I can choose my friends, my hobbies, my carrer, my hole live and I have the guarantee that i will find someone who will love me all my life. How can someone have more freedom?"

"Their freedom come because they don't confine love into a romantic relationship, they see love in every aspect of life. They see love in friendship, in their families. They are free because they let love roam free and because of that their decisions are make out of love. That's what's so catching about the book, every single step the main character takes is not because he wants glory or because he likes fighting and the opportunity to be something more, but because he loves his family and he doesn't want them to suffer. He fights because he believes every action counts and because he was given the opportunity to make things right. Because he understands what is love.

You said the other day that the fights in a relationship are something you'll have to work, as if it was something bad, something that shouldn't happen, something to be ashamed of. Well, you got it wrong. Fights are bound to happen and is not something you should feel ashamed for letting it happen. These fights happens because you care about you girlfriend or your wife. It's okey to fight and to make up. Because that's love. Don't you get it? Love is everything.

Love is soft and tender and smooth. But it can also be rage, screaming, crying. Because as long as love is the emotion fueling this action they become love. But don't get it wrong, love sometimes can be rotten and spoilt, so the actions make due to this kind of love would be bad.

But when love is pure and real it's.. It's simply amazing. That kind of love is the one my book talks about. A love that would make you sacrifice yourself for the others, a love that make you be kind to everyone because you see them as human beings, with the same problems and necessities you have, a love like that can move mountains, can overthrow regimes, this kind of love can make you achieve anything.

That is love. That's what I talk about. Love is not only in romantic relationships, it's everywhere. But, like everybody else, you fail to see that. And I think the fault is in this soulmate thing, it makes us believe love can only be achieved in a relationship, when love is free. Free for you to give it, as it costs nothing to you, and free to receive it, because you don't have to do anything to deserve people loving you"

Gale was staring at her " Whoa! I never thought you had that inside. I mean" he shuttered "That's what you think about love? No wonder why you don't like the soulmates. But I don't think everything you said is true. We are guarded when it comes to someone that won't be your soulmate or even when you are getting to know someone and you don't know if they'll be the one. But people are able to see love out of relationships"

"Are you sure?" Hawthorne nodded "Well, if you go inside and ask Delly she would tell you nobody loves her because she hadn't have a boyfriend yet. And we both know she is loved by lots of people. But that's what our society has made us believe, if you don't have a soulmate you're not loved. How lame is that?

We have locked up love inside a romantic relationship and It's really hard to conceive it in any other place and it's so sad, because I know how wonderful and big is love. That's why I don't agree with soulmates"

"So you think that a world without soulmates would be exactly as in your book, no?" Gale asked, he had leaned forward and was resting his elbows on his knees. Madge nodded.

"Okay, but what happens if things aren't like that" he continued looking at her, his gaze not leaving her face for a moment "What if even in this different world people continue making the sames mistakes, only seeing love in romantic relationships. What would you say? Maybe you would thought that in a world with soulmates people would be able to see love in every corner because they wouldn't need to keep it to themselves, they'll find their soulmate, so why should they be guarded? They should be nice and loving to everybody, they should be throwing love around, it's not going to waste and they would find the one, even more they would have a signal that will confirm that, the sentence"

Madge was staring at him dumbfounded, but he hadn't finished.

"So I think the ideal world your book paints doesn't have anything to do with having a soulmate or not. From what you have told me I think it's has more to do with how you live your life. I think that not matter in which world we might find ourselves we would tend to do the sames mistakes, so don't blame the soulmates, blame the people. And if you really want things to change you should star with little things, there's no need of one big action, little acts of love are the ones who help the most, or at least that's what my mother says"

Madge was staring at him. She hadn't thought about that. How could she be so stupid! She had spent her whole life feeling superior because she thought soulmates where the problem and no one was able to see that but her.

"Wow! You've manage to leave me without an answer two times in a row, if people find out you'll be the new capitan of the debate team is matter of seconds"

Gale laughed "Don't worry, I don't want to steal your place"

"Thanks" she said shyly

"Why? For not wanting to steal your place? We both know you're the best"

She took a big breath, this was going to hurt, at least to her pride "No, but thanks for the compliment. I wanted to thank you for showing me that I was wrong, I mean it's going to take me some time to accept this sentences doesn't have the fault of everything, but you've made your point pretty clear"

"Your welcome" he said leaning back into the sofa "It's a pleasure to help people to open their minds"

"You're calling me narrow minded?" Madge asked trying to sound angry, but failing.

"C'mon Undersee, I know you got it"

They stood a moment in silence.

"I just have this doubt" Gale said loking at the garden.

"Shoot"

"It's just that I find strange that you want people to break their walls and everything, but then you're as guarded as most of them"

"Well, I have heard that the things we most hate about other people are our defects, because we see ourselves reflected in them" Madge knew she was going to admit she was a hypocrite, but she didn't care anymore. Once Hawthorne got her into talking about soulmates she couldn't shut up "And that's what happens to me. I know I should let people inside, be more open and don't let fear keep me from showing people that I care, but I'm not able to do that. I know it's silly and that's why I get mad when I see other people making my same mistakes, I want them to be better than me. It's stupid" she put her feets on the sofa and huged her knees.

"Well I would say that is irrational more than stupid. But I can see your point. I think that you should start with the little things"

"But what can I do? I mean this conversation with you it's the most similar thing that I have done" she buried her head in her knees.

"That's a great start" his tone was encouraging "Maybe we can start with something easy" Gale took her hand gently and unwrapped the fabric she had around her wrist "this could be a good start, you don't have to worry, people won't start trying to read your sentence, and if they do well" he shrugged "it's up to you to show it"

 _AN_ : _I know this was supposed to be a one-shoot, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. Anyway, I'm not really happy about what I've write, although they say everything I wanted them to say, but I feel like there's no conection o whatsover. This will end in the next chapter. I hope you like it and sprry about any spelling or grammar mistakes._


	3. When we just talk

_A month later_

Madge finished playing the piano, gathered her things and headed out of the school.

She was smiling. A big bright smile. She hadn't felt like that in a long time. Her life wasn't any different but she was looking at it in a different light. She waved goodbye to a couple of girls who where taking advanced english with her.

It turned out, once she started talking to them, that they had a lot of things in common but they were a little afraid to talk to her because they think she would turn them down. Ironically that were her fears too.

She had to thank Gale. His advice had been great. Being more open had helped her. Only in an month she had made more friends than in her entire life. She knew the road of trust was was long but she was happy with her improvements.

"Hey Undersee! Do you need a ride?" Gale was in the parking with a group of friends.

" _Sure"_ she smiled. His friends started complaining when he said goodbye to them. Madge laughed.

When they reached the car Gale held her door open.

"So how was your day?" she asked.

"It was boring. I can't wait for the weekend. You're doing something?"he had turn on the car and they were leaving the parking.

"Katniss, Peeta, Delly and a couple of friends from maths are going to come to my house on Saturday. Peeta is going to cook. Wanna come?"she said hopefully. She wanted him to be there and to see her efforts.

"Mellark is cooking? There's no way I would miss that!"

They fell on a easy conversation about Gale's brothers and the football team. When they arrived to her house Gale parked the car and they continued talking.

Their talk was easy, some people would classify it banal or simple, but it made them happy and at the end that was what mattered to them.

Saturday came and it was funny, they didn't do anything special, they spent time with each other and enjoyed the feeling of summer in the air.

Her friends from maths left early because they had family dinner. Peeta tried to teach Katniss and Delly how to make pancakes, the outcome was as horrible as expected so they had to clean the kitchen.

Madge went to the porch where Gale had gone to eat the few decent pancakes, after a bit of struggling and persuasion from Madge side he share some with her.

"You know what?" asked Gale looking thoughtful at the sky.

"What?" she looked at him, she liked to see his face when they talked.

"As weird as it might seem I like it when we talk"

"I don't know why it should be weird, I have a delightful conversation" she tried to sound annoyed, but he started laughing.

"Delightful? Miss don't talk to me or my tattoo ever again? Are you sure you're not talking about my conversation?" he looked at her with a big smile in his face.

"If that is what you think about me I don't have nothing to do here" Madge tried to stand up and walk away but Gale grabbed her and sat her at his side.

"What I meant" he said hugging her waist "Is that I love it when we just talk, it doesn't have to be about anything important"

"I get it" she said resting her head on his shoulder "It's like we don't have to impress anyone, we can say whatever, the first thing that cross our minds and it will be okay"

"That's what I meant" he caressed her wrist, smiling, she placed her hand on his ribs, she had seen his soulmate sentence a hundred times, tattooed there like a love declaration, talking about love, talking about them.

It didn't matter which one she read first, both sounded perfect together. She liked to thought he felt first so she always read him first, she knew it didn't make any difference because _love is everything, no matter what._


End file.
